Film Review: TORI AND LOKITA (2022) DIRS. LUC & JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE
Film Still from Tori and Lokita © Les Films du Fleuve
Written by Belle McIntyre
The incredible hardscrabble lives of the two immigrant characters at the center of this engrossing tale of survival in cruel and indifferent circumstances is inarguably being played out in the millions on every continent. The ballooning quantity of refugees of war, famine, gang violence, climate change, sectarian violence, and economic insecurity is impossible to ignore these days. And yet, it is imperative that we not become numb to it and recognize that these are not just numbers, but human beings who deserve some empathy and help whenever and wherever possible. It is to that end that the Dardenne brothers have created this fictional, but believable, story of an unlikely pair who have found a deep bond which empowers and emboldens them to cope with the terrors and humiliations which they face from all sides as marginalized, reviled and powerless members of an underclass which most of society choses to ignore or regard as a nuisance.
Film Still from Tori and Lokita © Les Films du Fleuve
Portrayed by non-professionals, Tori is an eleven-year old boy from Cameroon; Lokita is a sixteen-year old girl from Benin. They have passed themselves off as siblings since they made their way from Italy to Belgium, which is where they have landed up when we meet them living in a children’s shelter. They are employed at a pizzeria where they make deliveries, do odd jobs and occasionally perform, but mostly they deal cannabis for the chef who is a brutal task master and treats them like dogs. Tori has gotten his work papers but Lokita has not, which makes it impossible for her to get legitimate work and the threat of deportation hangs heavily over both of them at all times. They are under intense stress constantly as they try to make enough money to pay off their traffickers and still have something to send home to their families.
Film Still from Tori and Lokita © Les Films du Fleuve
Lokita has the additional humiliation of sexual abuse from her chef/drug dealer boss who has been known to demand paid sex from her. When he offers her a better paying gig and working papers which would involve a couple of weeks tending the plants in his boss’s grown house at a secret location, she is quick to take the offer. Little realizing how punitive the conditions will be.
Film Still from Tori and Lokita © Les Films du Fleuve
She is blindfolded and taken into the prison-like facility, denied use of her cell phone, or outside access. When the time frame is extended her desperation deepens without being able to communicate with Tori, who has been equally bereft by their separation, it triggers a bold plan by Tori to rescue Lokita.
Film Still from Tori and Lokita © Les Films du Fleuve
It is a tense and gut wrenching “great escape” that the clever Tori manages to pull off, which involves some satisfying paybacks of their oppressors. The ultimate end is an unwelcome let down, but actually, more probable than a more upbeat outcome. The reality presented here is not pretty, but not without it’s gratifying portrayal of true and deep friendship and indelible characters which will not soon leave your consciousness.
